I could be wrong, but with the less than enthusiastic reception of Vista, the growing popularity of Linux, and the recent FUD campaign from MS, I have a feeling things are shifting ... I don't know what things will look like in 5 years, but I think they'll be different. It's interesting to explore possibilities.

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Is really amazing, they do crappy os, but in bussisnes strategy, they are like a chessmaster. I wish they could use their intelligence for something else.

That's so true! People have accepted so much of the crappiness without thinking of it critically. Just take security ... I can't believe that windows is as insecure and prone to being cracked as it must be from what I read. It's crazy: running a million security apps, anti-this, anti-that, and even afraid to click a link unless you have yet another app to check the link for you: to make sure you won't be infected just by visiting a website. It was bad when I switched in 2005; it's insane now.

Perhaps there's a growing realisation of that, and that realisation is part of the equation behind the FUD/patent deals from MS on the one hand, and the attempts by others like Sun to cash in on FLOSS. I hope there's a lot more to Sun's pro-GPL talk than there is to the MS FUD.

Knowledge is Power, Share it!Mark my words and I do not imply I know anything more than any one of us all including, "Cait", I respect her authority and knowledge. But I see more lawsuits by the biggies, M$, Sun, etc. In the future including in the remote villages of the Urals. In 1998, I stated to Robert that "Cash and Greed," would become the Guru's of Linux eventually. Not far off...Next prediction in a month or so. Would someone start a thread to Sun to S--- or get off the pot. Would be inappropriate for me to do so. Our servers would not be able to stand up to the bandwidth.OOmmm, OOmmm,regardsDarrell

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Knowledge is Power, share it.Be the change you want to see in the World

That's so true! People have accepted so much of the crappiness without thinking of it critically. Just take security ... I can't believe that windows is as insecure and prone to being cracked as it must be from what I read. It's crazy: running a million security apps, anti-this, anti-that, and even afraid to click a link unless you have yet another app to check the link for you: to make sure you won't be infected just by visiting a website. It was bad when I switched in 2005; it's insane now.

Well you know what Buddhists say: "Everything partakes of its opposite." It's a worthy trade-off.

The very architecture of Vista represents that cycle concretely: it's grown so aggressively that abstraction falls apart and it becomes an unmaintainable and bloated mess.

I just adore this quote. I have been around long enough to see it in action many times.

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When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always. Mahatma Gandhi

Darrell

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Knowledge is Power, share it.Be the change you want to see in the World

MS are obviously not murderers. Calling them 'tyrants' would be a bit of a stretch. I've personally met an MS employee, an Assamese guy; he's really smart, and he even collaborated with Noam Chomsky. Other greats like Leslie Lamport, who wrote LaTeX, are on the MS team.

But it's true the heads of MS are way too powerful, and they are certainly very greedy. I wouldn't go as far as to say that they are evil, especially b/c they don't seem to be fully aware of the effects of their own overgrowth, but their greed has definitely come home to roost in many ways.

(Those words are certainly fitting for Shrubley and Friends though...)